IRON MAIDEN / AVATAR (Live)

Photo: Séverine Peraldino

Celebrating half a century of Iron Maiden, 40,000 fans invaded the French capital for the Run For Your Lives tour. Covering the first thirty years of the band, this focus on good old classics enticed the fans of the first hours (or simply those who frowned upon the latest releases) to attend this tour. Multiple generations gathered together for this massive event!

It was also the second time the band chose to play at La Défense Arena. The venue is indeed the biggest there is in Paris, short of a stadium, and it was certainly chosen for its capacity, as it does not have any other redeeming value… Read on to know more, but beware the spoilers!

Avatar

Avatar’s growing popularity cannot be debated, and even if their style is quite far from Iron Maiden’s, the mad circus from Sweden was very much honoured to be present and received a warm welcome from the audience. This reviewer wouldn’t go so far as to say that some people came just for them, but their presence was definitely a plus for those who were hesitant to make the trip to Paris.

And indeed their performance boded well for the rest of the evening. Johannes Eckerström appeared on stage like a jack-in-a-box and launched into the song “Dance Devil Dance” with all the energy needed to wake up the impatient crowd. From the front of the pit, the sound was surprisingly decent given the size of the venue, and it was a shame that it was not the case for Iron Maiden. Throughout their short and upbeat set, Avatar was a good choice to set up the mood!

Iron Maiden

Although the venue has giant screens, fans were surprised to discover that these were only used to display advertisements while waiting for the main event. Spectators in the furthest stands had to make do with much smaller screens on either side of the stage.

Speaking of screens, that’s the big new feature of this tour. Until now, Iron Maiden had always used large tapestry-like backdrops and subtle lighting to enhance their performance. To celebrate their 50th anniversary, they decided to add this touch of modernity. It was quite successful on most of the tracks (an improvement? Perhaps not, but the result was not disappointing).

While the sample of “Ides Of March” played, the screen displayed animated artwork in a modernised style of the Killers album: a tour of the pubs and clubs where Iron Maiden rose to fame fifty years ago.

However, it was against an apocalyptic backdrop of Paris that the six musicians, wrinkled but bursting with energy, took to the stage. Dickinson was in great form on “Murders In The Rue Morgue”, but the sound was very garbled. The stage was also quite low, and while this caused no issue for those in the front rows, at the back of the pit, it was difficult to see anything happening on stage, a disappointment for quite a few people. It is much to Iron Maiden’s credit that they refuse dynamic pricing of the tickets, but the prices for this show were much higher than when they played in Bercy a few years back.

For the start of this concert, the band truly honoured its early days with the late Paul Di’Anno. With such a rough sound, one can at least say that the punk influences of “Wrathchild” came across well. Eddie, armed with an axe, made his first brief appearance on “Killers”. He first attempted to decapitate the band members before being roughed up by Dickinson. Faced with these shenanigans, Steve Harris remained unperturbed and focused on the audience.

The highlight of the show was the epic “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. A clip with a sophisticated but somewhat generic video game aesthetic illustrated the song. There were no samples during the long interlude, and Dickinson took care of the narration, which gave it a much more natural and evocative feel: certainly the best track of the concert, even if, once again, Steve Harris’s bass during the interlude sounded terrible.

Unfortunately, this butchery of sound continued on “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,” which was so badly mixed that it was difficult to recognise the opening notes played by Adrian Smith without the clue provided by the artwork on the screen. And it was such a shame! Dickinson’s voice was everything fans could hope for and even better: magnificent, powerful and dramatic with that ohoho going on and on, keeping the whole audience spellbound.

There was no major innovative staging on “The Trooper”, but there were some impressive visual effects on “Hallowed Be Thy Name”. Pursued by Death, Dickinson (or at least his silhouette) climbed a steep path above the stage, but he was caught and hanged before falling back down and returning to life to rouse the crowd once more during the final part of the song.

The staging of “Fear of the Dark” was the same as for the Legacy Of The Beast Tour. It was incredibly effective and would have made for a spectacular end to the concert. However, to ease the pressure a little, the choice fell on “Wasted Years”. “Running Free” might have been a better choice this time around. But, well, fifty years is just a birthday, and it seems that Iron Maiden is not ready to retire just yet.

Final words

As usual, Iron Maiden delivered a spectacular show with an excellent set list, so it was frustrating that they had to play in such conditions. For a band of their stature, such a terrible sound, even in a big venue, is a major disappointment. Paris La Défense Arena might be decent to host sports events, but when it comes to music, it’s a place to avoid for concerts due to its poor acoustics and chaotic crowd management.